What if the church never took up new technology?

Visa Debit is running a great campaign based on the idea – “imagine if technology hadn’t evolved?”

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EoGZbtxOHY 270 210]

What do you think?

This got me thinking. Churches are usually the last to take up new technology, but they usually (eventually) do take it up. They bravely hang on to overhead projectors, and then finally cave in and get a video projector, and wonder how they lived without it! Why did it take them so long to catch on? Sure, price might be one concern, but it seems to me that there is a general reluctance towards anything that is new.

I thought about what it would look like to run a similar campaign and entitle it “imagine if churches never took up new technology?” What would our churches and ministries look like if we were stuck in a technological rut? Some churches will need to use less imagination than others, but here are some ideas:

• pastors couldn’t listen to sermons by pastors from churches on the other side of the world (or the other side of their city) – no podcasting!
• the only form of mass communication with congregation members outside of Sundays would be by letter – no email!
• people would only be able to find out about your church by visiting, or chatting to someone who goes there (assuming they know even know someone who is a Christian) – no websites to explore!
• pastors would rely on newspaper clippings or stories from their own life for sermon illustrations – no Google search!
• words for songs and the service order would be typed out on a type-writer – no video projectors!

Sure, these might be silly examples, but if churches decided to press pause at any point in time, they would still be doing ministry without the benefits that much of today’s technology offers. Then I came across an article in the Belfast Telegraph – 101 gadgets that changed the world and realised that our use of technology is far more extensive, in fact, it is inescapable (and for the most part, there are lots of benefits to us that we wouldn’t want to escape from).

What’s the point?

The point isn’t that just because a technology is new means that it must be good and we must take it up immediately.

The point is that just because a technology is new means that it isn’t necessarily bad and we must explore its possibilities for ministry.

So explore new ideas and new technologies.

Try different ways of getting things done,

of being efficient with your time,

of discovering new information,

of studying the Bible,

of encouraging people to serve,

of interacting with people with different learning styles,

of sharing ideas and connecting with people, and most importantly,

of communicating Jesus.